


In Which Tony Never Really Had a Choice (but still isn't sure it was the right one)

by MissCora



Series: The Adventures of Darcy Lewis (Stark) [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Thor (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 14:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissCora/pseuds/MissCora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's possible he's needed to get this off his chest for a while. It's possible he's drunk. It's possible he's going to regret going shot for shot with Thor in the morning. Actually, that one's probably more than just possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Tony Never Really Had a Choice (but still isn't sure it was the right one)

Rogers had been making with the Judgmental Eyes even more than usual since they’d all found out about Darcy. Not that it was surprising to Tony, really--he'd grown up in the 30s, after all, before broken families were a thing and being a bastard still carried serious social stigma. Which didn’t make dealing with him and his holier-and-more-patriotic-and-just-generally-better-than-thou attitude any more fun. At least since he usually skipped meetings Tony mostly only saw the blond during actual emergencies or training sessions, both of which provided sufficient opportunities to blow off steam by blowing shit up and making faces inside his helmet.

Today had been one of the latter, a training session that actually went shockingly well for once. They’d made it through their simulation _and_ nobody had shot, stabbed, or exploded anybody else. It was possibly a miracle and definitely something to celebrate.

“Thor, buddy!” Tony called out as he spotted the Asgardian striding down the hall away from the simulation room and hurried after him.

“Tony! Well met, my friend, and well fought today. Though the foes were not real, yet we battled and triumphed most valiantly. Truly, today is a good day.”

“Indeed it is,” Tony agreed, amused as ever by Thor’s expansive nature. “It seems to me our triumph deserves some celebration, so I was going out. Come with? We can go find a bar and do the night up right.”

***

He’d been matching Thor drink for drink so far, but it was possible Tony was going to have to slow down soon. He could drink just about anyone on earth under the table he was quite sure, but Thor wasn’t from earth, and was arguably a god, _and_ was half again Tony’s size, so he could live with being overmatched this once.

Still, the fact that he’d been trying to keep up probably explained how they’d ended up talking about the rest of the Avengers Initiative, although he wasn’t sure. He did kind of remember Thor expounding on Dr. Foster’s many wondrous assets and agreeing that while her breasts were smallish they were lovely. Nice to know a guy who wasn’t going to get uptight about Tony admiring or flirting with his girl.

Of course, then Thor had started in on the majesty of Darcy’s breasts, and Tony _absolutely_ drew the line there.

“No offense was meant, my friend. Indeed, your Darcy is a fine girl with many admirable qualities.”

“She’s great,” Tony agreed, “but she’s hardly my Darcy.”

“Ah, of course. Jane has emphasized to me that Midgardian women place great value on being independent and strong in their own right, and not simply belonging to or being defined by a man. As though any warrior who has fought side by side with the Lady Sif would doubt such a thing.”

“What? No,” Tony started, then shook his head. “Well, yes, that’s all true and important, respect the ladies, up with, you know, independent women, and _especially_ if the good doctor’s brought it up with you. But I just meant I didn’t have a lot to do with how Darcy turned out, aside from some chromosomes.”

“I do not understand.”

“I . . . it’s complicated, maybe, and clearly calls for more liquor.” Tony waved over the waitress and took the first snifter of bourbon she offered him as a shot before grabbing a second. “Look, ok, start at the beginning and all of that, but in Asgard, I assume that at least sometimes kids are born when their parents aren’t married.”

“Yes, of course!” Thor’s tendency to boom and expound was becoming problematic the more Tony drank because, fuck, the _volume_. “When the blood is pounding hot a warrior does not wish to lie alone, and often there are women happy to share in a battle’s triumphs and lessen its losses.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, nodding his head a little too emphatically. “Yeah. That’s it exactly.” Thor was clearly the one to be having this conversation with, because he’d been fretting at it for a while now, but Nat and Steve were both _way_ too judgey and prone to making Disapproval Faces, and he got enough of that from Pepper, thank you very much, and Bruce was all about the self control thing, which was so not Tony’s thing so they tended to stick to being science bros and leave the personal shit out of it, and Clint was a dick who looked at Darcy in ways that made Tony want to hit him. A lot. While he was in the suit. But Thor got it. Thor was definitely his favorite. “So, what happens if there’s a kid?”

“It depends on those involved. The couple may care for it together, in fondness for each other or simply for the child, or the mother may raise the little one alone, or with help if she wants or needs, which may come from her family or the women of her village or another who cares for her and so for the child because it is a piece of this beloved person. It is also not unknown for a village to raise such a child collectively, if neither parent is willing or able, yet the mother chooses to bear the child to term. Is it not thus here on Midgard?”

“Huh. Actually, uh, yeah, it’s often thus . . . er, like that.” If he started saying things like ‘verily’ and ‘foresooth’, Tony was definitely cutting himself off for the night.

“And in your case and that of young Darcy? I had noticed she does not bear your name, if it is not indelicate to mention . . .”

“Yeah.” Tony sighed, taking another deep drink. “So, ok, I was . . . I was nineteen when she was born,” he said, then noticed the confusion on Thor’s face. “That’s young, even in earth terms, and I was on my own and not handling it real wall because my parents died not long before. Lots of partying, lots of booze, lots of women, and really not all that different from now, only, you know, less because it was fun and more because I wasn’t coping.” Yeeeeeeah, he was drunk and should really stop drinking. And talking. Anytime now. “I didn’t even know about the pregnancy until Sarah, Darcy’s mom, shows up at my door with a baby and a DNA test, and it wasn’t a long conversation.”

 

_There was a baby in his arms. A tiny little baby, and she was perfect and beautiful and **his** , which was terrifying, but not as terrifying as the thought of letting her down. “We . . . we could get married,” he said, not even looking up, so he didn’t see the look of shock on Sarah’s face, just heard her horrified little laugh._

_”Are you out of your mind?” she asked, and then he did look up and she must have seen something in his face--because, fuck, everything was probably written on his face right now. A **baby**. Sarah’s tone became less harsh but the words were like a slap in the face. “Tony, that would be a **terrible** idea. I’m not marrying a one-night stand, and I’m not letting you . . .” She cut herself off, pursing her lips together, but he could kind of tell how that sentence ended anyway, ‘not letting you take her,’ ‘not letting you hurt her,’ ‘not letting you fuck this up the way you fuck everything up.’ Instead she said, “Look, I appreciate the impulse to do the right thing. I just think the right thing is, you know . . . financial.”_

_Tony wanted to scream, or throw things, or call every lawyer he had and never let go of this precious, perfect little person he’d made._

_And maybe all of that just proved her point. He couldn’t do this, couldn’t put what the baby needed above what he wanted, and it wasn’t like he had any idea how to be a father._

_“Right,” he said, looking down at the sleeping baby with his mother’s nose, and his heart broke a little more, but there was a point where he was so broken a little extra damage wouldn’t really show. “Right, financial. I’m good at that.”_

 

“Well, it was like you said,” Tony said, knocking back the last of his drink and setting the glass down with a thud. “Her mother wanted to raise her with maybe some help from her family and a bit of money for school and day care and things. I saw Darcy a couple times when she was younger, but mostly not. It was probably for the best, really. I’d have been a terrible dad.”

Thor considered him for a long moment, and Tony had the distinct feeling the Asgardian could see right through him, could read the cycle of self-destructive bullshit that Sarah had always claimed was the reason he couldn’t see Darcy more, but which he couldn’t get away from because in the back of his mind was always the knowledge that yet another Stark child was growing up without a father. But all Thor said was, “I am sorry for you, Anthony Stark. My heart aches with the pain of my shield brother, yet perhaps this shall be an opportunity for you. Darcy is a strong, spirited young woman who surely will not quaver or shrink from this chance to know you at last. For if she does not fear to strike the God of Thunder, she cannot fear much.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tony said with a little smile, then blinked. “Wait, what?”

“You must explain to me how your Midgardian science has harnessed such powerful lightning in the tiny device called a taser.”

“. . . oh for fuck’s sake, she didn’t.”


End file.
